combs
by xoVanilla-Bean
Summary: Let's be honest for once. — OliviaElliot


Combs.

_Let's be honest for once—_

After all this time, they've been partners. After all this time, they've been staring at each other and analyzing each other, figuring each other out.

Honestly, they know the other like the back of their hands. It's the opposite of how it should be, really.

Elliot knows about her drunk mother, who is the reason for her being in the precinct, who had passed not too long ago; her step-brother who she wants to connect so much with; her bastard father, the rapist, who she wouldn't mind shooting with the gun's handle fitting comfortably in her hand.

She's compassionate (too angry), head strong (broken), complex as shit.

But she's Olivia, and he glances at her too many times to count.

The love of a partner can only go so far, and it's an extreme pivot from the love of an ex-wife.

Olivia knows about Elliot's wife—his dedication that he is blind to; his four lovely children he is fiercely passionate for, how he thinks that he can't sacrifice anything to make them love him (when, in fact, they do beyond compare). His anger is a loose faucet that he lets leak, because it's the easiest way to let go.

He's compassionate (too angry), in control (emotionally unstable), complex as fuck.

But he's Elliot, and she cares about him more than she likes.

They might think themselves screwed, but they will always admire one another. Their job is what bashes them with the ruthlessness of reality, but they always anchor each other down.

It's their job. It's their partnership. Without the other, this would never work.

And the tension shouldn't be here when he loves his children (when did they get so tall?), when his mind still wants to see the smile from Kathy he never will again.

The tension shouldn't be here when she's so scared, when she's not being vulnerable (but in all honesty, she always has been), when she has hidden this want away long enough to think it was a dried stain.

This kiss is so timid, it's almost not even real.

But who really cares now, because maybe this should happen after her throat comes _this close_ to getting slit and he gets shot at least twice _every year_ and she leaves and he forgets (but in all actuality, he never could) and she comes back and all of a sudden it's not the same because it can't be the same. Not after—not after…

Maybe it wasn't any of those things. Maybe it was when she walked through the gate of goddamnation, shaking his hand with a smile, saying, "I'm going to be your new partner."

This kiss is getting gently vicious, mimicking what they slowly became.

It's not until their tongues slide with slick friction, when lips rub with rough understanding.

In the end, perhaps it was always the understanding they would show each other, through those knowing looks in interrogation, the quick compromises they didn't have to think twice about.

_Especially not now_.

And, in the end, maybe this—them—has been the only thing they've ever needed.

They can flush out the tangles, plunder down the curls, drive through the dead ends side by side—just like the past nine years that have flashed by so fast. Just like how his fingers are combing through her hair.

But when it comes to them, it's always been about the double-sided communication.

When they break away, she looks at him with pink cheeks and he looks at her with dilated eyes.

The description is definite, and words would smudge over like wet fingerprints in this falling rain.

The beads splattering made the meaning more fragile and more powerful.

And the water soaking their lungs and drowning their minds blurs an imaginary line they had set up a long time ago.

_

* * *

_a/n: watching that SVU marathon the other day just begged me to do something. I didn't want it to be non-dialouge-ed, but I think if I tried, it'd fail spectacularly. And I wanted it to be a subtle OliviaElliot, but well...it was a kind of examination instead.

I guess the pace is kind of weirded out, but I always thought their relationship was kind of sporadic. I hope you readers enjoyed it nonetheless!~ 8)


End file.
